SYNCHRO-NET will demonstrate how a powerful and innovative synchromodal supply chain eco-NET can catalyse the up­take of the smart steaming concept and sy­nchro-modal logistics.

What SYNCHRO-NET is about?

The SYNCHRO-NET project aims to reduce hinterland transport costs, decrease CO2 emissions for shipping and land-based transport, foster relevant modal shift to greener modes, by catalysing the uptake of the slow/smart steaming and synchro-modality concepts, guaranteeing cost-effective robust solutions that can de-stress the supply chain and improve coordination among transport modes and supply chain operators. Indeed, on the one hand, slow/smart steaming allows massive reduction of fuel costs and gas emissions for shipping. From the other hand, synchro-modality supports stakeholders to foster the modal shift to greener modes and coordinate logistics operations, leading to reduced empty kms for trucks and fewer wasted repositioning movements.

The core of the SYNCHRO-NET solution is an integrated optimisation and simulation eco-NET system, incorporating different modules:

Strategic and real-time synchro-modal logistics optimisation, for providing a list of potential alternative routes and schedules for synchro-modal freight transportation;

Slow steaming ship simulation & control systems, for estimating the ship fuel consumption and emissions (CO2, NOx, SOx) for a given route depending on sea state and encountered environmental conditions;

Synchro-modal risk/benefit analysis, for evaluating the risks of a specific route;

Dynamic stakeholder impact assessment solution, to allow customers, logistics providers, ship operators and public authorities to interactively assess different cases and scenarios from the perspective of environment, cost, social impact and resilience/reliability.

Synchro-operability communications and governance architecture, by which the SYNCHRO-NET modules communicate with each other.

The eco-NET system can contribute to delivery higher benefits for all the stakeholders in the supply chain:

Customers and end users will have greater control of their supply chain, leading to more reliable replenishment activity and therefore reduced safety stocks and expensive warehousing;

Authorities and governmental organisations will benefit from a smoother, more controlled flow of goods through busy terminals and reduction of congestion on major roads, thus maximising the utilisation of current infrastructure and making the resourcing of vital activities such as import/export control, policing and border security less costly.

“Synchronet is a co-funded project by the Horizon 2020 Framework programme of the European Union”

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THE PARTNERS

COSCO SHIPPING Lines (Spain), S.A. was established in 2016 to represent in Spain, Portugal and Mauritania to COSCO SHIPPING Lines Co., Ltd., headquartered in Shanghai, who is an enterprise specially engaged in international and domestic container shipping and related services. Its predecessor is the former COSCO Container Lines Co., Ltd established on Nov. 11, 1997.

In accordance with the overall arrangements of reform and restructuring made by China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited (hereinafter referred to as COSCO SHIPPING), COSCO Container Lines and China Shipping Container Lines Co. Ltd. entered into a series of container ship and container leasing agreements on March 1, 2016, and implemented business restructuring officially. COSCO Container Lines is renamed into “COSCO SHIPPING Lines Co., Ltd” on Nov.18,2016. According to the investment management system, COSCO SHIPPING Lines is a fully-owned subsidiary of COSCO SHIPPING Holding Co.,Ltd, and is indirectly held by COSCO SHIPPING.

After restructuring, the operation scale of COSCO SHIPPING Lines was further enlarged, and its service network was better improved.

By the end of February 2017, the company has a total of 311 container ships (excluding three 8,770-TEU leased ships), with a total carrying capacity of 1.64million TEUs, up 97.6% year-on-year, ranking the fourth place in the world for scale of container fleet. Moreover, the company holds orders for 33 container ships, with a total carrying capacity of 542,776TEUs.

According to the middle and long-term development plan, COSCO SHIPPING Lines will stick to the corporate culture of “one team, one culture, one target and one dream”, bringing into full play the advantages of global shipping network, resources and management collaboration, insist on a customer-oriented strategy, constantly elevating the operation and management ability, and develop into a world’s leading shipping enterprise with international competency.

LE Europe is one of Europe’s leading specialist policy and economics consultancies and has offices in London, Brussels, Dublin, Cardiff and Budapest, and associated offices in Paris and Valletta. LE Europe advises clients in both the public and private sectors on economic and financial analysis, policy development and evaluation, business strategy, and regulatory and competition policy.

HydrOchydroceanean was created in 2007 in order to develop software and services allowing the evaluation and optimisation of ship performances.

HydrOcean is a world leader in marine computational fluid dynamics. Through a complete numerical towing tank, HydrOcean proposes hydro and aerodynamic performance evaluation and optimisation services for the Marine, Offshore, Renewable Energy and Sailing industries.

RSSB is a not-for-profit company owned by major railway industry stakeholders in Britain. The company is limited by guarantee and is governed by its members and a Board. Its purpose is to support its members and thereby the industry to: continuously improve the level of safety; drive out unnecessary cost; improvebusiness performance.

EMC is a global leader in enabling businesses and service providers to transform their operations and deliver information technology as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is Cloud Computing and Big Data. We work with Customers & Organisations around the world in every Industry, in the public and private sectors, and of every size, from start-ups to the Fortune 500.

With more than 63,000 employees at 1000 locations in over 100 countries, the Kuehne+Nagel Group is one of the world’s leading logistics companies. Its strong market position lies in the sea freight, airfreight, contract logistics and overland businesses, with a clear focus on providing IT-based lead logistics solutions. Key business activities and market position are built on the company’s truly world class capabilities: Sea freight; Contract Logistics & Integrated Logistics, Airfreight, Overland.

SYCO was created in 1978 as spin off of the research activity of its founders in the field of controls and automation developed in the academic world. It designs software architectures, builds prototypes and simulators, implements development environments and software tools to enable automation in the factory and in the services. During these years the company has co-operated with many major Italian and a number of significant foreign industries involved in Robotics and Automation.

Cross-border Research Association, CBRA, formally established in Lausanne, Switzerland in 2005, is an independent research entity focusing on advanced supply chain, supply chain security (SCS), ecustoms, customs risk management and public-private interface research on a global scale. The CBRA research team carries out survey and case study work, cost-benefit analysis, various forms of modellingand theory development and other research tasks within the core domains.

CRAIN specialises in Nautical and Naval technologies. Its main fields of activity are: Performance prediction for ships powered or not by wind. This is achieved by using aerodynamic and hydrodynamic modelization or testing of parts, performance prediction software for whole ship. Results and software are used by designers, shipyards or CRAIN to develop new ships or parts. Specialized software for design of sails, mast, deck hardware.

Founded in 1969, Software AG is the global leader in business processes, integration and big data. Its track record includes the invention of the first high-performance transactional database, Adabas; the first business process analytics platform, ARIS; the first B2B server and SOA-based integration platform, webMethods; the first cloud-based Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Software AG Live; and pioneering big data technology with Terracotta´s BigMemory. Building on over 40 years of customer-centric innovation, Software AG is ranked as a leader in 15 market categories.

Kongsberg Maritime AS is a world leading marine systems and electronics manufacturer for merchant vessels and offshore installations. We provide systems and products within dynamic positioning, navigation, automation, information technology, hydroacoustics, satellite positioning, seabed survey and construction, surveillance, maritime simulation and training, and for fishing vessels and fisheries research. Key markets are countries with large offshore, shipyard and energy exploration & production industries.

SAM Electronics is a well-known system supplier in the world wide maritime market with product scope covering energy and drive systems as well as automation, navigation and communication systems with experience and capability in the research, development, production, marketing, sale, servicing and repair of electric and electronic systems for merchant marine and navy vessels. The SAM Group, SAM Electronics GmbH together with their affiliated companies had a turnover of €363m in 2008 with 1372 employees.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI is part of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, which is a non-profit corporation for applied research in Germany, promoting link between scientific research and industrial implementation. The Fraunhofer IVI provides know-how and technological solutions in various fields of transportation research.

The Cork Institute of Technology is one of Ireland’s premier Technical institutes and provides education, training and research in a diverse range of disciplines with a particular reputation for engineering, electronics and the practice of music and art. CIT is located over four separate campuses.

The main campus is home to CIT’s technical, engineering and business activities. The other CIT campuses are The Crawford College of Art and Design, located in Cork city centre, the CIT Cork School of Music located in a purpose-built state of the art facility also in Cork city centre and the National Maritime College of Ireland situated in the heart of Cork Harbour.

Politecnico di Torino is an internationally leading institution to study engineering and architecture.

Politecnico di Torino has around 32,000 students, with 50% from outside the region and about 15% who are foreign – the highest percentage in Italy. POLITO’s degrees are internationally recognized and students can choose to follow degree courses taught in English or, thanks to our links with some of the most prestigious universities around the world, undertake periods of study abroad as part of their course.

Bureau Veritas is a world leader in laboratory testing, inspection and certification services. Created in 1828, the Group has more than 64,000 employees in around 1,330 offices and laboratories located in 140 countries. Bureau Veritas helps its clients to improve their performance by offering services and innovative solutions in order to ensure that their assets, products, infrastructure and processes meet standards and regulations in terms of quality, health and safety, environmental protection and social responsibility.

MJCmjc2 (1)² specialises in software design of complex scheduling & optimisation software. Its systems are amongst the most powerful on the market and MJC² is one of the few companies in the world that can offer real-time scheduling solutions. MJC² offers solutions which cover transport and distribution scheduling, supply chain optimisation, manufacturing planning and many other applications. MJC²’s systems span all time frames, from real-time scheduling and daily planning through to strategic optimisation

DHL Supply Chain is one of the companies of the Deutsche Post DHL group. It is one of the world’s leading companies in express shipment, freight transport and logistic solutions as well as international post. DHL SC is the leading logistic operator in the world and also the number 1 in air and maritime freight traffic, and the second in road transport in Europe. In Spain DHL SC owns 60 warehouses and has more than 3.700 employees. DHL SC offers integral solutions for the whole supply chain.

Circle is an innovative European company working on innovation, technology and digital marketing and being a unique partner for business development, efficiency and integration of innovation into daily management. Circle has a solid background and expertise in the development of EU and International co-funded projects. In this domain, Circle is offering its consulting services to strategic customers in the public and private sectors willing to share the opportunity to develop their business using co-founded projects; our consultancy starts from the Check Up of the potential EU funding sources, continues in the Project Anticipation approach and ends in the real project lifecycle, exploiting the project results into the customers’ business.